The Modern Pentathlon Pistol Shooting is usually the first event on the Modern Pentathlon program. The event has changed over the years from a 25m turning target to a 10 metre stationery target. These days we use an air pistol, but before that, they used a .22 caliber pistol.

Today they use a 4.5 millimeter air pistol. They are very accurate and easy to operate.

Each competitor fires 20 shots at 20 different targets from a 10 metre distance. They get 40 seconds to take each shot before they have to go on to the other. Just like Archery, they use a 10 point target. 10 of course being the highest points you can get from one shot.

Competitors must stand to take the shot and they must only use one hand. An average air pistol weighs about 1.5 kilograms so that is not difficult to do. The competitor also gets a two and a half minute warmup to get use to the range and gun.

The athletes are also given up to five minutes for gun repairs if anything happens to their guns while in competition. They can apply for more time if needed, but that's not guaranteed.

Once the athlete has completed their shots, their score is tallied up. The max score someone can get from the range is 200, which in Pentathlon points equals 1336 points which goes to their overall Pentathlon score.

To get 1000 Pentathlon points, which is what everyone in theory starts with, the competitor would need to score 172 points in total on the range or an average of 8.6 per shot.

For a non shooter, that is very difficult indeed.

All shooting is done with electronic targets, so everything is fair and equal between competitors. Wind and other factors of nature are also not a problem as the shooting is done inside.